Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Brett Favre is NOT Retiring

Haven’t we seen this act before? Brett Favre is supposedly retiring…for the third time (officially the third time – unofficially it is 432,132 times). Like the Rocky movies, they keep making sequels and while the first couple times it was entertaining, at some point it just becomes an old guy who can’t let it go. And that’s where things currently stand. Two years ago he forced a trade to the Jets in July. Last year it was the boy who cried wolf when Favre waited until July to go back and forth before suiting up for the Vikings. This year, no one believes him. Just like if Sylvester Stallone decided to make a final Rocky movie more than 15 years after Rocky V…..wait, that actually happened. And then Stallone made a Rambo IV movie 20 years after Rambo III. Maybe him and Favre are related?

I feel bad for Vikings fans, because now they understand what it is like to have your franchise hi-jacked by Brett Favre, held hostage and potentially left for dead. If Favre stays retired, the Vikings will be lucky to win 8 games with Tavaris Jackson at quarterback. Yet if Favre had told the team back in March or April that he was going to retire, don’t you think the Vikings would have made a major push to get Donovan McNabb? Or at least drafted Jimmy Clausen. Instead, Brett took a big, steaming dump on another franchise who had bent over backwards to please him.

So why don’t I believe Favre is really retired? Simple: Favre is an attention whore, a greedy ego-driven diva and the king of excuses.

Attention WhoreHe loves the attention from the media and the fans. He likes to be the center of all the storylines and loves to pose for the cameras more than Paris Hilton. He loves the specials about whether he will or won’t retire. He wants the reporters camped out at the end of his driveway so he can put on his old Wrangler jeans, beat up baseball hat, and smirk into the camera “Aw, shucks. I just play football.” Yeah right, Brett. You just love everyone begging you to play and using your “power” to get Coach Childress to pick you up from the airport himself. He also knows that Vikings fans will drop a deuce in their pants when they realize how bad the Vikings will be without him, and therefore they will love him even more when he rides in on his white horse just before the start of the regular season. And he will love the slobbering that ESPN will lavish on him from Chris Berman, Chris Mortensen (Favre might as well pay him as his personal PR person) and Sal Paolotonio.

Greedy Ego-Driven DivaThere is no doubt that a part of Brett’s ploy is to get more than the $13 million currently on his contract. He sees the enormous contract Sam Bradford signed. He sees that Peyton Manning and Tom Brady are about to break the bank. And he wants his piece of the pie. So he’s going to put the pressure on the Vikings to add another year and a few million more in his contract. He doesn’t need the money. He already has enough to buy most of Mississippi. But Brett sees it as a sign of respect to be paid among the elite quarterbacks in the league and he needs the attention and what he believes is his due respect.

Yet this is the same Brett Favre that called out Sterling Sharpe and Javon Walker when they held out because they had outplayed their current contract. No wants to talk about that. Yet what Favre is doing is basically holding out for more money and to avoid training camp. Way to be a team player, Brett.

King of ExcusesFavre’s toughness cannot be questioned. Yet every time he fails, there is always an excuse as to why it’s not Brett’s fault. When the Packers struggled from 2005-2006 it was always blamed on a poor supporting cast. Yet the reality is that Favre was out of shape, unprepared and undisciplined and as a result he threw a ton of interceptions. It would not have mattered who was lining up wide for him. When he cost the Packers the 2007-08 NFC Championship with a hideous game, it was because of the cold. It couldn’t have been because he locked on to a receiver and threw a horrendous interception, could it? When he faded terribly down the stretch with the Jets in 2008-09, it was because of a torn biceps tendon. And when he threw another unconscionable interception that cost the Vikings a trip to the Super Bowl in 2009-10, what was the excuse? Oh yeah, it was his ankle injury, not his terrible decision-making.

So by announcing his retirement because his ankle hasn’t healed correctly, he is creating his built-in excuse in case he fails with the Vikings when he makes his way back to the team during the preseason. If the Vikings don’t get to or win the Super Bowl, it won’t be Brett’s poor decision-making or deteriorating skills that are the problem. It will be the ankle that didn’t allow him to play at full strength and he was a hero just for trying to gut it out.Listen, I loved watching Favre play when I was growing up, and I consider myself extremely lucky to have had one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time leading my favorite team throughout all of my formative years. But enough is enough. Unfortunately his amazing playing ability has been eclipsed by his pathetic ego-driven diva act.